The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1887-05-07
OLD GRIbLEY's GHOST,

why ii <w4ass che nattepl
How your n .lon lsss fs you sick?a
"What all .son Ithan2 Speak out, man
Have you bee seegqe 4 giipstan N
'To tell ths trlath Maggie, / do feel
little nervous thia morning. I haven't
made a trip theses snty years that I
dreaded like this. =
''Seen Old Gridl{ sgain Z"
''Yes.n
'Pshawl L tHtnEht that was vas it.
Haven't you seea laim dozen times be-
fore and nothing caAase It ln
This time he hi his eextant.
All this was at lle breakfastS table.
Dunham was mate ef the Gro Fino, max
ing tri-monthly trius Between Portland
and San FranciscoJ He 1fAd sailed thirty
years, been rouna6 ti world twice, been
Captain about $ aA but lost his ship
and couldn't 4 aothen and SO was
glad to be 5'irss LAT III fale Orc Fino.
Dunham had haI{t 81 seeing ghosts,
or, rather, a ghost III lio never saw but
enc; that was old ridley. Gridley
was mate of the vess< which Dunham
made his first trip q siip- boy. That
trip was DunhaIH iIrs but Gridley's
last. Gridley had q passion for beating
ships boys with fof aend. Gridley
was taking an obscrYS 0n with thess sex
tant, and, as the BOZ M passing him
with bucket and swatj. sudden iurch
of the ship threw him kAinst the mate.
Gridley seized ropes end. and was be-
laboring the boy sotalt1It when boom,
providentiallv left ldescS ! sfr,fck him and
Knocked him overbozS Ersr since ,.sli that, hat
on numerous occasiots Dunham had seen
Gridley's ghost lIs5 Ily with a ropes
end, but sometimes fh . sextant. He
had neverebeen able y see any particular
fatality portk ded b{ tIle vision with the
ropes end, He d seen it dozen
times; and .ol kneeasinns his hest
luck had seemeu to /. Tow the apparition
Not so when the ghost with the sextant
appeared. He had seen this only twice
once, the night before he fell from the
foretop and broke his leg; the other time,
the night before his ship was cast away
Last night was the third time. He had
walked up and found himself lying on his
back. The room was perfectly dark; it
was also perfectly STILL Dunham could
see nothing and could hear nothing
Nevertheless, he felt that something or
somebody was in the room that ought to
be out of it. He also felt draught of
cold air. Dunham was no stickler for
ventilated apartments, and had carefully
closed and locked the windows before re-
tiring. The air could not come from
ha n1nr
the bedroom door, for that opened into
the sitting-room just opposite to win
dow, and if the door had been open he
could have seen the window. Despite
his natural courage, Durham was fright
ened. He raised himself on his elbow
very cautiously. He looked about the
room; he could see absolutely nothing.
He reached over to where Maggie, his
wife, slept-she was there. He moist
ened his finger in his mouth and held ii
up. He could then sensibly feel the
draft of air coming from the foot of his
bed. He got up and struck a light.
Looking over his shoulder as he did so,
he saw, at the foot of his bed, old Gridley.
1t would do no good to shout aloud-his
wife would only laugh at him. He had
often walked her up to look at the ghost,
but she professed never to see It. Ii
would do no good to 60 up to the appari-
tion and try to seize it-he had often
done this, and it only disappeared for an
instant to reappear in another part of the
room. So he left the lamp burning and
got into bed with his eyes fixed on the
figure.
This time Gridley hh his sextant, and
seemed busy bringing an imaginary sur
down to an imaginary horizon. The
operation completed, the figure turned tc
the bureau and seemed to be making the
calculation. Then he turned to Dun.
ham, and shook his head negatively, and
dashed the sextant to the floor. A sud
den crack startled the mate. He had
turned the lampwick too high, and the
chimney had cracked and fallen to the
floor.
In the morning Dunham was a little
nervous. However, having taken cur
or two of strong coffee, felt more com
posed.
joey Dunham, the mates only child, {
boy of ten years of age, almost always ac
companied his father on his trips. Thi.
time Dunham proposed to leave him Al
home; but the boy seemed so disap
pointed that his father finally gave way
and they started together down to tn,
steamer.
joey was perfectly at home, and Will,
his father was busy, stole up into tn,
wheelhouse, which had incautiously beer
left unlocked. The wheelman, coming
along soon after, met Joey stealing dowI
the steps, looking scared and guilty.
In an hour the Orc Fino was at tn,
mouth of the Willamette, and struck tn,
strong, full current of the Columbia
Having more sea-room now, she began II
use her strength. The flames roa
through the fines; the engineer turns OIL
full head of steam; the clear, sweet wa
ter of the river, cut clean and neat by tn
| prov. is dashed into snowy foam by tn
/ .~aIIlac and - tru nt,1 ,.oa. oxvall